To make today's office more productive, makers of office machines such as copiers, fax machines, and printers have capitalized on the low cost of processors and memory to convert simple machines into "intelligent" machines with much greater functionality. Even such "intelligent" office machines, however, have limited memory, processor and long term storage capabilities relative to the personal computer (PC). For example, it would be advantageous to provide enhanced facsimile features such as secure messaging, binary file transfer, inbound routing to a PC network, scanning and printing with a PC, remote administration, and so on. Yet, standard "Group 3" fax machines available today cannot support such enhanced capabilities.
One way to satisfy this market need would be to build a new office machine with these added capabilities. This solution, though quite viable for tomorrow's era of machines, may require substantial modifications to existing office machine hardware. Instead of creating entirely new machines to support enhanced capabilities, existing office machines need only be modified so that they can communicate and interact with a computer. By slightly modifying existing fax machines and coupling them to a PC, the fax machine may operate as if it were equipped with a wide range of enhanced capabilities.
Office machines have been coupled to a PC, but until this invention, they have not exploited the resources of the PC in a general way. For example, some fax machines have been coupled to a PC to perform basic functions such as printing. This use of the PC does not enable the fax machine to access many types of information on the PC such as document or image files, or address books, for example. Fax modems and associated software utilize the resources of the PC in a more general way, but they have no stand-alone capability. The fax modem must be coupled to a PC just to provide the functionality of a standard fax machine. Existing methods for coupling a PC to an office machine do not address the problem of making the resources of the PC available to a variety of office machines, while still retaining the office machine's ability to operate in a stand-alone mode.
The desired method for making the resources of a PC generally available to an office machine must enhance the capabilities of stand-alone machines in a manner that may be adaptable to a variety of office machines. In effect, the office machine should be capable of operating in dual modes: an enhanced mode where the resources of the PC are exploited, and a standard mode where the PC resources are not available. This dual mode would provide for more flexible operation of the office machine because it would not be dependent upon the PC. Moreover, the process of adding capabilities to a variety of stand-alone machines could be generalized. Ultimately, a variety of stand-alone machines could be coupled to a PC using most of the same basic software and hardware.
It is an object of the invention, therefore, to provide both a method and apparatus for enhancing the capabilities of an office machine that allow the office machine to more effectively exploit the resources of a PC.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for enhancing the capabilities of an office machine that enable the office machine to operate in a dual mode providing enhanced capabilities, yet retaining stand-alone functionality.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for enhancing the capabilities of an office machine that can be supported across a variety of office machines with a variety of capabilities and features.
To achieve these objects, the invention provides a method and apparatus for enhancing the capabilities of an office machine. The method includes interfacing a computer with an office machine through interfaces on each machine, and then determining whether the computer is available by accessing the computer from the office machine. If the computer is available, the method includes transferring information identifying the enhanced capabilities of the computer to the office machine. If the computer is not available, the method includes operating the office machine without enhanced capabilities provided by the computer. The method, thus, enables he office machine to operate in dual modes: an enhanced mode when the computer is available, and a standard mode when the computer is not available.
The method according to the invention may include various additional steps. The method may include passing capabilities of the computer to a capability determination module on the office machine, and then selecting a protocol of the office machine based on information in the capabilities determination module. The method may also include advertising the enhanced capabilities of the office machine to other machines when the computer is available. To prevent other machines from attempting to use enhanced capabilities of the office machine when the computer is not available, the method may include instructing the other machine not to store the existence of the enhanced capabilities. Finally, the method may include transferring data between mass storage on the computer and the office machine when the office machine operates in enhanced mode.
The invention may also include an apparatus for enhancing the capabilities of an office machine. This apparatus includes a computer having an office machine interface, and an office machine having a computer interface, and a capabilities determination module. The computer and office machine are in communication with each other through the office machine and computer interfaces. The capabilities determination module is in communication with the computer interface for obtaining and storing capabilities from the computer. The capabilities determination module may also be in communication with an enhanced and a standard protocol module for selecting a protocol for communication with other machines.
The methods and apparatus of the invention have the advantage of enhancing the capabilities of office machines without eliminating the office machine's ability to function in a stand-alone mode. The office machine can exploit the resources of the computer by obtaining access to a wide range of capabilities available on the computer as opposed to merely using the computer to perform a basic function such as printing. The invention is adaptable to many different types of office machines having varying built-in capabilities.degree. Thus, the concepts of the invention may be applied to enhancing the capabilities of fax machines from various vendors, and can easily be extended to different types of office machines such as copiers, printers, etc.
The advantages and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description and accompanying drawings.